Category Archives: Marketing

SALES FOLLOW UP CALLS

Posted on May 31, 2012 | Leave a comment

Many businesses are good at the initial sale but very poor at following up the sale. When we built our house there were numerous contractors involved with some pretty big sums of money involved yet only one, yes just one, followed-up to check that everything was OK and whether we needed any help to get the best out of what we had bought. What a wasted opportunity! This is just the moment to capitalise on a successful sale, find out how you can improve, possibly sell something else or get a referral!

Here’s a simple script and checklist with a built-in Action Plan you can use to follow-up all your sales:

If you need help with calls to follow up your sales or would like to share your experience about them, why not join the A+BAC community on Facebook. This is a place where business captains get real-time, practical answers to their questions as well as add their experience to the knowledge pool.

Like A+BAC on Facebook and get in to win 1 year of free accountancy services!

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Business, Marketing

Tagged , ,

PERSUASIVE WORDS IN MARKETING

Posted on February 9, 2012 | 2 Comments

If you’re writing about your business or thinking up special offers you need to make sure your copy is as effective and as persuasive as possible, as leveraging your marketing efforts means you get a much better return for your dollar or time.

Some say there are 8 really persuasive words in the English language, some 10 or 12 and one or two even 108 or 120 but I like the 16 most persuasive words used in advertising & direct mail as below:

  • You/Your
  • Guarantee
  • Easy
  • Results
  • Fun
  • Now
  • Save
  • How to
  • Money
  • Love
  • Benefit
  • Proven
  • New
  • Health
  • Free
  • Safe

Now you might think you’re pretty good at writing copy or you may think so daunting a prospect that you’d rather take your mother-in-law out to dinner, but either way, using as as many of these words as you can will make it very easy – just build your sentences around the words – here, let me demonstrate:

“You will save money, love to use, have fun and enjoy proven results with the new super this and that now available in 6 new easy to use safe styles, guaranteed for 10 years, and comes with free accessories so healthy it’ll benefit you for years to come”.

There you are – easy peasy – used all bar one of the words in one sentence in a few seconds! And in addition, they’ll make sure you avoid the No. 1 mistake in advertisements. Which is, you ask? Putting your name at the top and then just listing out the services you provide. Is that persuasive? I think not! Who cares about your name unless you’re a global brand? And listing out your services? Come on now! I recently saw 15 adverts in one magazine for accountants. All bar two had their names and what services they provided. Tax returns? Accounts? You don’t say!

If you need help with your marketing contact Nick on 0800 ASK NICK or email nick@abac.co.nz.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Marketing, Uncategorized

THE LIFETIME VALUE OF YOUR CUSTOMERS

Posted on February 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

It’s vitally important to know the lifetime value of your average customer or client for two main reasons:

  1. If you know how much a customer is worth to you over the period they continue to buy from you it can makes a huge difference to how you treat and regard them. This helps us to take a long term view in doing the best possible job to look after and nurture customers and add value to each and every transaction with them rather than, like some badly advised business owners, maximising the value in today’s sale – in other words, screwing as much out of them as possible.

  1. In addition, if you know how much an average customer is worth to you, you know exactly how much you can spend to acquire a new customer. Say a customer is worth $20,000 to you. How much would you spend to get that customer? $5,000? $10,000? Now $5,000 may be the first two year’s worth of profit but wouldn’t that be worth it, assuming you could finance the loss of initial profit. So armed with that information you can now look at your marketing expenditure as an investment, not a cost, such that the MORE you spend the better off you are! Isn’t that fantastic?

To calculate the lifetime value of your average customer or client you need to know the average sale per customer, your gross profit margin, the number of times a customer buys annually from you and the number of years the average customer stays with you, as below:

Average $ Sale Per Customer ($)

Less: Cost of Sale ($)

Equals: Profit Per Individual Sale ($)

Multiply By: No. of Times Customer Buys Annually

Equals: Annual Profit per Customer ($)

Multiply By: No. Of Years as Customer

EQUALS LIFETIME PROFIT PER CUSTOMER ($)

Piece of cake right? Get out there and start investing in marketing!

If you need help with working out the lifetime value of your customer contact Nick on 0800 ASK NICK or email nick@abac.co.nz.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Business, Marketing

JOINT VENTURE MARKETING

Posted on January 19, 2012 | 2 Comments

One of the most effective marketing techniques is Joint Venture marketing, whereby you find a non-competing business whose customers are the same type of people as your customers. You get this business to promote you or mail their customers promoting your product or service and then split the profits with the host business. It takes many years and many thousands of $ to build a customer base so why not take advantage of someone else’s hard work?

And the beauty of it is that it’s a win-win for both of you! Jay Abraham, the famous and successful US marketer, has a sound piece of advice when it comes to setting up “host” relationships: “Be generous with the host company when setting up the deal. If you can’t get the host company to pay for the mailing, offer to pay for it yourself. Or offer them 60% instead of 50%. Or offer them 100% until they double their money, and a lower percentage thereafter. Offer them whatever it takes to get them to do the joint venture with you. What do you care how much they make, since you’re investing so little up front and have so much to gain yourself”?

Over the years when I’ve explained this truly effective technique to clients I get many blank looks as they think it’s all too hard, despite the examples I produce from real businesses showing that in fact it’s like everything in life, it just takes a little effort and imagination. Now imagine how thrilled I was to see this pavement sign outside a local shop which I immediately captured with my mobile ‘phone:
Joint Venture MarketingIsn’t that fabulous? So simple, so low-cost and so straightforward and yet so effective! It costs the shoe shop nothing, not one cent, so they’re happy little bunnies. And neither, of course, does it really cost the pedicurist anything either, just their time. But the return for the pedicurist, if she does a good job, is huge taking into account the lifetime value of a typical customer – even at $50 per visit, monthly for even three years is $1,800! What a local and very simple example to explain joint-venture marketing to clients.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Marketing

Tagged , ,

EFFECTIVE BLOGGING

Posted on January 12, 2012 | Leave a comment

Blogging is one of the most effective yet free – yes FREE – ways of marketing yet few venture into this area. It can position you an expert in your field, build your profile and brand, and draw prospects to your website. Here are a few tips to get started:

  • If you don’t know what to write, don’t worry unduly, just pick on an area you know well, the sort of thing you’re probably discussing regularly with customers or staff. This could be the key frustrations customers suffer when dealing with suppliers in your industry, tips on how to get the best out of your product or service or how the customers can reduce costs or save time etc. Google is a great source of ideas and inspiration.

  • Blog regularly by getting into the habit. I’ve conditioned myself to blog in the same as I’ve conditioned myself to keep fit – if I don’t do it I start to worry and actually feel guilty! The more you do, the easier it becomes.

  • Keep them as short as possible. This isn’t easy and takes practice, but the less you write the easier it will be to read and keeping them short doesn’t mean you are short-changing your readers as writing concisely and to the point will be far more effective and informative.

  • Make your blogs as easy to read as possible without excessive technicalities or jargon as these will just confuse your readers. Youngsters are useful here as they will be able to pick out words they don’t understand. No children or nieces or nephews of 10 -14? Email them to me, I’ll get my younger two to read them through.

  • Write your blog as though you were speaking to a down-to-earth client or customer, not as you would have done whilst you were at school trying to please your English teacher. Not as far as text language maybe, but short easy-to-read sentences, bullets and “chunking”, breaking it down into small easily digestible parts.

  • Try and focus on areas of interest to your readers which may not be the same as yours. Initially, you may have to suck it and see, or look at other blog sites but when you’ve done a few blogs you’ll find that some topics or areas are much more popular than others, so write more on these.

Starting to blog is like going to the gym or for a run on a winter’s night – it’s a scary thought but once you get out there you enjoy it, so don’t delay or prevaricate, just do it! If you need help with your blogging contact Nick on 0800 ASK NICK or email nick@abac.co.nz.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Marketing

Tagged , , , ,

BECAUSE OF THE CUSTOMER

Posted on December 8, 2011 | 2 Comments

I was searching through my extensive collection of business and marketing material the other day when I rediscovered this useful ditty about the importance of the customer:

Because of the Customer

Because the customer has a need we have a job to do
Because the customer has a choice we must be the better choice
Because the customer has sensibilities we must be considerate
Because the customer is unique we must be flexible
Because the customer has an urgency we must be quick
Because the customer has high expectations we must excel
Because the customer has influence we have the hope of more customers
Because of the customer we exist!

No idea who came up with this, and Google was no help, but isn’t it true?

Nowadays of course, great customer service is no longer enough, and we must look to add value in as many ways as possible, and work out ways to help our customers help their customers, but given the poor service that’s still so common in so many businesses (despite the recession) perhaps many more business owners & their teams should learn this off by heart!

If you need help with your customer care strategy contact Nick on 0800 ASK NICK or email nick@abac.co.nz. The first thing we’ll get you to complete is our 30 question Customer Care questionnaire and then work with you to discover your customer’s key frustrations. We then design a fully customised customer care strategy for your business, typically incorporating key aspects such as performance standards, focused staff training and customer advisory boards to ensure your business begins to display the characteristics observed in the most successful customer driven companies.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Business, Marketing

Tagged , , , ,

RISK REVERSAL

Posted on December 1, 2011 | 1 Comment

When you’re asking a new customer or client to do business with you for the first time they are taking a big risk by placing their trust in you. Now of course, from your perspective they are not, but it’s necessary to put yourself in their shoes and see things from their point of view. Yes, they may be unhappy with their current supplier but often it’s a case of better the devil they know!

Now to increase the chances of getting that new customer or client on board you need to help them by reducing the risk as far as you are able to or by eliminating the risk by you taking it on the chin, by “reversing” the risk onto yourself. After all, you want the business, so why should the customer or client go out on a limb?

One risk-free way for you to achieve this is by third party endorsement as it always helps if someone else can reassure the prospective customer or client that you are reliable and can be trusted. The easiest way here is testimonials from named individuals, as anonymous testimonials can be fabricated. Another good way is some case studies that talk about specific results and clearly demonstrate how you’ve gone beyond the norm to help your customers and clients.

Now since it can also be difficult to prove the bona fides of case studies an even better (but riskier for you) way is to tee up some referees who are prepared to speak to the prospective customer or client and answer their questions about you, your reliability and how you’ve performed in practice. If you’re new in business this could be difficult but otherwise, there’s normally a customer or client or two that you’ve done that special favour for who’ll be prepared to help.

A potentially even riskier but very effective technique is to offer an unconditional money-back guarantee if the customer or client is unhappy with your product or service. This will only work if you’re good at what you do so take care or you could be in difficulty very soon! Yes, you may get the odd time waster with nothing better to do but on the whole I find this works well, both for me and for clients.

Feeling very brave? Some take this a step further, by offering an even larger cash refund if they get it wrong. That may be over the top for you, but if you need help coming up with your risk reversal strategy contact Nick on 0800 ASK NICK or email nick@abac.co.nz.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Business, Marketing

Tagged , , , ,

FREE WEBSITE ANYONE?

Posted on November 17, 2011 | 3 Comments

They say only a third of businesses in Hawkes Bay have a website. Given the world we live in today and the importance of the internet and the part it now plays in our lives this is something which amazes me. I’ve heard loads of excuses but come on now, in 10 year’s time those businesses without a website are going to be increasingly marginalised. It doesn’t have to be flash, just a basic one will do to start off with and nowadays, who doesn’t want to check out a business on-line before you use them?

These are the more common excuses and why they don’t stand up:

  • It’s too expensive. Not so, I can introduce you to a web-designer who can do you a basic website for $500 + GST!

  • It’s too technical for me. You don’t need any technical knowledge to get a website up and running, nor even to keep the content updated. Yes, it’s important to choose a website that’s easy to keep up to date but having done so, if you can type (slowly!) you can update your own website.

  • I don’t know what to write on there. What? You can’t say what you do, write about you and your team and quote 6 – 10 reasons why customers should use you and include a Contact Us section? Or include some testimonials, your FAQ or your Point of Difference? If you really can’t do this if you’re a client or become a client of the Accountancy + Business Advice Centre I’ll do it for you!

  • The hosting fees are expensive. Anything but as you can now host websites completely for free! We at the Accountancy + Business Advice Centre have 10 subsidiary web-sites we set up to use all our domain names and these haven’t cost us a cent in hosting fees! One US provider lets you set-up 100, yes, 100 web-sites all for free!

  • All my business walks in the door or comes from referrals. Yes they may do but a website is best way to provide useful information on your business 24/7 in a very cost-effective way accessible to all. You can also provide tips and useful information to position yourself as an expert in your field.

  • I have a Facebook page instead. Well done but a Facebook page will never replace a web-site. Firstly, you’re under the control of Facebook, secondly, it’s likely the popularity of Facebook will wane, thirdly Facebook is akin to renting rather than buying and lastly, Social Media sites should just be one weapon in your marketing armoury.

  • My business is too small. So what? Have a small website!

The reality is that you cannot afford not to have a website! If you need help to set-up a low-cost but effective website contact Nick on 0800 ASK NICK or email nick@abac.co.nz

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Business, Marketing

Tagged , , , ,

FREE YET EFFECTIVE MARKETING

Posted on August 11, 2011 | Leave a comment

As those who read my blog posts will know by now, effective marketing can be carried out totally for free and keeping in touch regularly with prospects, customers, clients or patients is essential to growing your business. One effective way to keep in touch is to send out newsletters and few businesses are so downright boring that even an occasional newsletter can’t be made interesting and give out tips and useful information. Providing you avoid adverts and talking too much about you or your staff – no one really cares about Deidre’s OE or your new reception desk – they really will keep your customers coming back more often.
Leaving aside the debate about whether physical or electronic is best, sometimes it takes a little trial and error to discover the best way to deliver the newsletters electronically in the most eye-catching or interesting looking format.
You could try Business Contact Manager on Outlook. Available as part of the package so effectively free, a friend of mine finds this works well. I didn’t have much luck with it, as for no apparent reason about half the newsletters just disappeared into the ether! In addition, it is limited on formatting and you get no dashboard reports on just how many have opened your newsletter or what sections they have read.
Much more useful is an on-line marketing tool called Mailchimp. Mailchimp is totally free to use (up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month which should do for most of us!) and has a number of really useful features:

  • It stores your contact list safely and securely. They categorically guarantee not to share or use your contacts.
  • You can categorise your contacts e.g. between customers or prospects or between different types of customers.
  • You can clearly see who has subscribed or unsubscribed.
  • It shows you, for each newsletter or mailing, just how many recipients have opened the newsletter and in addition, the “click rate” or ‘click through rate” which measures the number of times recipients click on a link to access an article or your website.
  • You’ll get a very good idea of how you’re doing as your results are presented side by side with your industry average. For example, a 40% open rate may not look good to you, but when compared to the 15% average achieved by people in your industry, it’s actually awesome.

So what are you waiting for? It’s free, easy to use even for novices and a really effective way of marketing.

If you need help with your newsletters, Mailchimp or your marketing contact Nick on 0800 ASK NICK or email nick@abac.co.nz. If you’ve gone to all the trouble and expense of being in business you may as well maximise your returns!

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Marketing

Tagged , , , , , ,

MARKETING, MARKETING, MARKETING

Posted on July 28, 2011 | Leave a comment

If location, location, location is key to real estate then marketing, marketing, marketing is key to business. It matters not how good or skilled you are at your chosen trade or profession, if you can’t market yourself or your business you just aren’t going to make it.

Now don’t, as many business owners do, confuse marketing with advertising. Wikipedia says “advertising is is a form of communication used to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to take some action with respect to products or services”. Marketing has been usefully defined as gaining, delighting and keeping customers, whilst making a profit and building the value of your business. In other words, marketing is virtually everything you do in your business which works and is effective.

Many business owners put marketing in the too hard basket, saying there’s too much to learn, it’s too expensive, it’s just not their thing or they can’t afford it. But you don’t need to spend loads of money on marketing, as many of the most effective marketing techniques are free, see here for some free marketing tips ad ideas.

Nor do you need an expensive marketing consultant who, mostly being ex-journalists will most likely focus on PR (public relations) activities which can cost a lot. Read some marketing books – the best marketing book is written by Dan Kennedy “The Ultimate Marketing Plan”. Don’t be put off by the title, it’s not a dry, dusty book about planning, it’s a very practical book with loads of practical examples – furthermore, you can get this for free  (click here). Have a go at the worksheets in the back of the book (ask me for a better copy of the worksheets) which will guide you to come up with loads of low-cost, practical and effective marketing strategies.

Further help with your marketing here or contact Nick on 0800 ASK NICK or email nick@abac.co.nz. If you’ve gone to all the trouble and expense of being in business you may as well maximise your returns!

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Business, Marketing

Tagged , , , , , , , ,